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'The Brook... Winter White Sunday - Easton, ME (no. 1)'
David Reich Chadwick tells of giving a copy of To Shine in One Corner of the World: Moments with Shunryu Suzuki to the Japanese poet Nanao Sakaki. David, then, asked Nanao if he had known Suzuki Roshi.
Nanao met Suzuki Roshi twice. He and Suzuki Roshi spoke just one word to each other in the first meeting: "Hi." Nanao said, "It was enough. I could see his great spirit, and he could see me." The two met again once. This time Suzuki Roshi was dying. They said "Hi" and "Hi" and bowed their heads slightly.
Chadwick asked Nanao, "So you and Suzuki Roshi had two meetings over the years, and the sum total of what you said to each other in both meetings was four words - actually, one word four times?"
"Yes. It was just right. I am so happy to have met him. He was a great teacher for America."
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When persons meet heart-with-heart, they see each other, and words pale in significance. This is not a matter of the eyes - indeed, one may so see without the eyes. This seeing is insight, seeing-into the other. A consummate gift is when we know we have been seen likewise. What more excellent gift can we give or receive than to see each other?
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How shall I see the other?
When the veils between the other and you are no more, you clearly see. One veil is your idea of the other. Imposing an idea of the other onto the other, you never see. Until the veils are no more, you see the veils. When you see, the other appears with a freshness that never was or will be. This freshness is unrepeatable. Seeing solicits seeing. This is the communion of hearts.
If I see the other, does the other see me?
Only if the other is able to see you. Your seeing invites seeing, no more. If you see, you may meet few persons who can reciprocate. Receive them as they are, be grateful for what they give. In your seeing, drop all desire to be seen. Pure seeing is pure invitation.
Do persons who do not see ever see?
Yes. Likely, everyone has a time or times of pure seeing. Yet, it is one thing to have an episode of seeing, another to live in the seeing. Our consent is to become one who lives in the seeing. Then, it is more accurate to say, "I am seeing," rather than, "I see." In time, seeing becomes as natural as breathing. You do not notice your breathing, yet breathing happens. You come to see without seeing that you see - yet seeing happens.
What is the relationship between loving someone and seeing?
Whom you see, you love. Seeing is loving.
So, this is love as a non-affection?
This is love beyond affection or non-affection. Do not try to understand it - receive it. When you receive it, you know it. Seeing knows seeing; the ego, at best, is only a willing participant.
Do not we all want to be seen? I do. Yet, I wonder if I am ever seen.
Want to be seen and let go of the want. Then, your desire is more a waiting in which is rest, rather than a search to be seen. Seeing always comes as a gift. If you try to form relationships to be seen, you will likely end up much disappointed. Simply be available. If you follow a devotional path, you might wish to pray for someone to be brought into your path for this mutuality of seeing.
Does this occur only with persons we already have some knowledge of?
The knowing you speak of is only memory. You may see someone and have no prior history with her. To say, "I know him" can only be in the moment. Once you say it, you no longer know him. Memory serves to create a veil, and we assume we know the other based on the past. We are familiar with her, but we fail to see her. We did not see her then, we do not now. Many persons live together and do not know each other. Many relationships fail for persons feign a commitment that cannot be without seeing. A relationship may suffer or end, also, for one sees and the other does not. If those relationships survive, they spiritually can at best be medicore in quality. Memory provides biographical data, but that is never fresh, never new. If I walk by a tree everyday, I can collect memories about the tree. Yet, that is not seeing the tree. This time walking by the tree is the tree it has never been - Will I see it? Hence, knowing someone as you mean knowing can hinder seeing. In fact, you may see someone you have no history with more easily than someone you are very close to. Yet, once you become seeing, you see all equally. When you are seeing, you cannot not see.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2020
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, especially Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the teachings and imagery in the poetry.
*For story of Nanao Sakaki and Zuzuki Roshi, see Cuke.com.
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